Exodus from Bedford Basin - Part 1

 It was a day of departures from Bedford Basin as several ships put out sea despite storm warnings. After several weeks of up to three ships at anchor in the Basin at any one time, the anchorages cleared of merchant ships (with one naval vessel remaining - see Part 2). Not surprisingly for the time of year, all the ships headed south.

CSL Tacoma arrived January 8 and anchored in Bedford Basin until fleet mate and sister ship Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin completed loading yesterday, January 9, and sailed for Baltimore. It is not often that the two ships are in port at the same time, and due to positioning it was diffficult to get any kind of photo with the two ships in the same frame.

CSL Tacoma back, left and Rt.Hon Paul E. Martin front, right, December 9.

CSL Tacoma then moved in to Gold Bond Gypsum, loaded overnight and sailed today, January 10 for for Burlington, NJ. Both ships are Trillium class self-unloaders, are for all intents and purposes identical, and were built by Chengxi Shipyard in Jiangyin, China. Rt. Hon. Paul E. Martin was completed in September 2012 and is a 43,691 gt, 71,406 dwt vessel. CSL Tacoma came out in October 2013 with the same gross tonnage, but 71,552 dwt. Unloading rates range from 4,200 tonnes per hour (tph) for coal, 4,500 tph for gypsum and 5,000 tph for aggregates.

CSL Tacoma outbound this morning.

Next away was the UBC Tarragona, a ship that has been in port since December 22. After unloading containers at PSA Fairview Cove it moved out to anchor December 23. As noted here December 24 , the ship is a general cargo vessel, with no provision for carrying containers in celluar guides as dedicated container ships do. 

UBC Tarragona outbound with the Nord Logos at anchor in the background.

(Number one crane is stowed in such as way that its boom is not visible from this angle)

The last merchant ship anchored in the Basin is the Nord Logos and it is due to sail this evening. It has been in port since December 29 when it arrived from Portsmouth, NH. 

 Nord Logos usually carries fibreportic cable, as does its sister ship Nord Ling which is  being fitted for cable racks at Pier 9C. The racks are fabricated in sections and assembled in the ship's holds.

The cable racks (or tanks in cable parlance) are used to stow the cable in a circular pattern for ease of loading and deployment.

 There was more activity in Bedford Basin, but that is for Part 2 - to follow.